(A) Ralph Michel, 35, collected “assignment fees” of $650,000 and $600,000 on side-by-side homes in the Versailles development in Wellington (one of the faux chateaux is pictured above). According to his attorney, the native Haitian can’t read or write well enough to pass a U.S. citizenship test — but he did figure out how to beat huge lenders for millions on these and other deals.

(B) Berry Louidort, also a native of Haiti, describes a scheme to buy 50 condos in Boynton Beach while stealing $4 million from lenders. He thinks he’s talking to a willing accomplice. In fact, he’s laying out the plot to an undercover FBI agent who captures the conversation on videotape.

(C) Michel and Louidort used straw buyers such as a part-time Publix cashier whose income on loan applications was inflated from $13,000 to $344,000 so she could qualify for $1.3 million in loans on a palatial home in a gated community in Boca Raton.

(D) During a meeting with the undercover FBI agent last month, mortgage broker Lauren Jasky of Compass Mortgage Services in Boca Raton said she didn’t want to know the unsavory details of the loans she’s shopping to lenders. Meantime, her mother is acting as the Realtor on some of the deals.

(E) Some of the world’s most sophisticated financial institutions — including JPMorgan Chase and Bank of New York — made loans on these properties for twice what they’re worth. The Wall Street giants approved these mortgages in 2007 for much more than the properties sold for in 2005 and 2006, in spite of the steep downturn in home prices in Palm Beach County.

Attorneys for Louidort, Michel and Jasky say they’re innocent.

This case is just getting started, but it’s already the most comprehensive explanation of Palm Beach County mortgage fraud I’ve seen. See the FBI agent’s affidavit here.